Mom Takes First Picture With New Baby, Not Knowing in Weeks He'll Be Gone
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A grieving mom has shared the first picture of herself with her newborn baby, not knowing she'd lose him just weeks later.
Wunmi Babalola (@wumzlola) from the West Midlands in the UK, shared photos on TikTok looking at her baby in his hospital crib.
In the same carousel on TikTok, Babalola also included the last photo the two of them would have together, just six and a half weeks later.
Split view of Black mother looking at baby in hospital crib and photo of baby alongside stuffed animal.
Split view of Black mother looking at baby in hospital crib and photo of baby alongside stuffed animal.
@wumzlola
Babalola and her partner Charlie had been together for around nine years before deciding to start trying for a baby. They got pregnant quicker than expected and were delighted to discover they would be expecting a boy in December 2024.
However, Babalola experienced a very difficult pregnancy. "I hated it," the 32-year-old told Newsweek. Diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), she had to battle extreme nausea on a daily basis – and it took a toll.
"I couldn't work; it had a massive impact on my mental health, but I told myself, I'm having a baby, it's okay, just suck it up," she said.
At 37 weeks, Babalola was feeling unwell with headaches and admitted herself to hospital where she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia – a complication characterized by high blood pressure.
She had an emergency c-section and Kayode Arthur Babalola-Fellows was born weighing 5lbs7oz. "He was a bit small, but he was healthy and beautiful," the new mom told Newsweek.
Shortly after Kayode was born, he was admitted to the NICU due to jaundice.
After a week and a half long stay in hospital Babalola was finally able to take him home, but even though they got the all-clear, Kayode still needed to be monitored with blood tests.
"Then before I knew it, something was changing in him," Babalola recalled. "For the life of me, I could not put my finger on what it was."
At the first visit to the physician, Babalola was told Kayode was suffering from common problems such as colic.
Eventually, the new parents ended up in the emergency room but after seven or eight hours, they were reassured that their baby was fine.
Babalola told Newsweek she felt like she was going crazy. "I just thought, okay, obviously don't trust your judgment because professionals have told you otherwise."
But at home the next morning, Kayode had deteriorated. With advice from another physician, she took him back to the ER. What happened next will haunt Babalola for the rest of her life.
"A nurse came to look at him straightaway, scooped him out of his stroller and ran with him to resus," she recalled. "Before I knew it, there was whole a team around him putting tubes down his throat."
Doctors thought Kayode had an infection and he was moved to intensive care. He was put under sedation and sent for a brain scan.
Babalola said the bad news was relentless. It was found that Kayode had suffered a hypoxic-ischemic brain injury caused by a sepsis complications, and his parents were told that he wouldn't survive.
"I remember hearing that and hysterically crying," Babalola said, explaining that the doctor had to tell her partner because she was unable to speak.
The couple took baby Kayode to Acorns Children's Hospice for end-of-life care. Doctors told them that he would pass away within a couple of hours, but Kayode defied the odds and survived for another three weeks.
In those weeks, friends and family would come and visit, they'd go for walks in the hospice gardens and make memories with the time they had left with Kayode.
"It was so quick," Babalola said. "I always describe it a bit like someone had popped a balloon, and then nothing, just silence."
Babalola said the days and weeks after his death were a blur – and coming back to all of his belongings at home was torture.
She still sleeps with Kayode's last change of clothes underneath her pillow.
By sharing her grief journey online, Babalola wants to advocate for mothers and families who have been through something similar.
"They don't need to be shamed into silence," she said. "It's weird, with baby loss, it's so taboo but it shouldn't be."
Having a community and a space to talk about Kayode has made a huge difference. Babalola is also running a half marathon on behalf of Acorns Children's Hospice to raise vital funds for the care they provide.
Babalola is now encouraging others to continue sharing their experiences of baby loss.
"[Those babies] were still very much part of Earth, still loved. I want to talk about him and keep his legacy going."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Consumers warned about food safety standards of Dubai-style chocolate
A warning has been issued to people with allergies to be careful when buying imported Dubai-style chocolate. The Cumberland Trading Standards Service issued a statement regarding labels on the imported chocolate. Dubai chocolate is a bar containing a filling made with kadayif and pistachio. It was created in Dubai, and was popularised in 2024 after being promoted by influencers on social media, especially on TikTok. By law, labels of products must list all ingredients and clearly highlight any of the 14 regulated allergens. The Cumberland Trading Standards Service said in a post on Facebook: 'Products that should not have been imported for sale may not meet the UK's high food safety standards. 'People should look out for: The name of the food (e.g. milk chocolate with pistachio paste filling); A list of ingredients, with allergens emphasised; The weight of the food in grams; A best before or use by date. 'If in doubt please do not buy and report any concerns to us on: 0808 223 1133.'
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
#SkinnyTok Rebranded Eating Disorders Dangerously Fast
#SkinnyTok is dead. Or at least that's what TikTok wants you to believe after its recent ban of the hashtag promoting an extreme thin ideal. That might have appeased regulators, but it shouldn't satisfy parents of teens on the app. An army of influencers is keeping the trend alive, putting vulnerable young people in harm's way. Today's social media landscape makes it all too easy for creators to repackage and disguise disordered eating as a 'healthy' part of everyday life. That lifestyle then gets monetized on various platforms — via habit trackers, group chats and 30-day aspirational challenges — and shared with a much broader audience.
Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Newsweek
Big Pharma Has a Trump Problem
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. President Donald Trump's clamp-down on federal science funding has handed Big Pharma an existential headache: the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has terminated more than 2,100 research grants and contracts, according to NIH scientists, totaling around $12 billion in early-stage studies that drugmakers often rely on to seed the next generation of therapies. In an open letter sent June 9 to NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and key lawmakers, 92 NIH scientists warned the sweeping cuts could shutter campus labs, hollow out the biotech talent pipeline, and push jobs and billions in investment overseas. White House spokesman Kush Desai defended the administration's approach to federal research, telling the Associated Press that Trump is focused on restoring a "Gold Standard" of science, not "ideological activism." Newsweek has contacted the White House, NIH, and HHS via email for comment. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty How Research Funding Cuts Could Damage Big Pharma University labs across the country supply Big Pharma with a constant stream of breakthrough ideas and a talent pipeline of PhDs who know how to turn them into therapies. "The industry of biotechnology is built on advances in academic labs," Richard DiMarchi, a professor of chemistry at Indiana University, told Newsweek, adding that there was "no way large companies can sustain this level of creativity and productivity without a vibrant academic research community." This mutually beneficial relationship can be seen in Eli Lilly's planned $250 million infusion into Purdue, AbbVie's oncology alliance with the University of Chicago, and Harvard-AstraZeneca stem-cell projects—plus dozens of smaller sponsored-research deals. "Universities also train the next generation of scientists who work in drug companies," Eric G. Campbell, a professor of medicine and director of research at the CU Center for Bioethics and Humanities, at the University of Colorado, told Newsweek. "Research has shown that financial interactions between academics and industry are ubiquitous in biomedical research, medical education and the practice of medicine in the U.S.," he added. Cities like Boston and San Francisco have "emerged as major hubs for biotech and pharma because of the quality and concentration of biomedical research conducted at universities such as Harvard, UCSF and Stanford," Ulrich Mueller, a professor of neuroscience and biology and director of developmental neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, told Newsweek. As a result, Big Pharma companies, such as Novartis and Pfizer, have established major research facilities in Boston "to be in proximity to the hubs of discovery," he said. Venture funds in those cities have fueled an "astonishing local biotech ecosystem that provides a direct pipeline for pharma," Mueller said, and the major founders of these biotech companies are often professors from academic institutions that "want to translate findings from their research labs funded by the NIH into cures." "This has been a major driver of the American biomedical enterprise but is on the verge of being destroyed," he said. The ecosystem of science and drug discovery in the U.S. is now "endangered." "The pharmaceutical industry is not equipped with the brain power or expertise to conduct basic research," Michael A. Santoro, professor of management and entrepreneurship at the Leavey School of Business and the Santa Clara University, told Newsweek. "Even if it was somehow possible for the pharmaceutical industry to pour more billions of dollars into basic research, the payoff for the investment would be less impactful than university-conducted research," he added. As a result, Santoro said that he thought Trump's cuts to university research would result in the costs of new drugs rising "astronomically as that will be the only way the pharmaceutical industry can justify replacing university research with private labs." He added that the U.S. would also experience a "brain drain" as "researchers look for opportunities abroad or perhaps drop out of the economy altogether." "The U.S. is on the verge to lose its pre-eminence in biomedical research and drug development," Mueller said. The "cracks are already appearing" Mueller warned. Pfizer has recently made a deal with 3SBio in China to develop cancer medicine, with an upfront payment of $1.25 billion with milestones potentially increasing the deal to $4.8 billion. "The loss is devastating because it has wide ranging impacts also for local economies and the job market," Mueller said. "Intellectual property and the benefits to the U.S. will move to other shores together with major investment of pharma and venture firms in companies abroad." An Eli Lilly spokesperson told Newsweek: "We understand cuts will likely impact the research these labs conduct, which is not positive for the biopharmaceutical research ecosystem. However, these cuts should not impact Lilly's ability to keep our own discovery engine going which is a key priority for our company." Newsweek has contacted Merck & Co., AbbVie, AstraZeneca, as well as Novartis and Pfizer, via email for comment. Wider Implications for Health Santoro said that the Trump administration's actions towards medical research will also "affect the quality of health care generally." "Physicians have an ethical duty to practice science-based medicine. Without scientific research at the university level, the quality of medical care will decline," he said. More widely, the cuts could also have "societal consequences to the nation's health and economic prosperity," DiMarchi said. "It's a delicate network that links translation of breakthrough university discoveries to drug development and registration at global pharmaceutical companies, and as such should be approached with a 'first do no harm mentality'," he added.
